Consequently the orders of entry most frequently met with, and best, are the following four:—
- Treble, Alto, Tenor, Bass.
- Bass, Tenor, Alto, Treble.
- Alto, Tenor, Bass, Treble.
- Tenor, Alto, Treble, Bass.
The following are also possible, and sometimes to be met with, but are less good:—
- Treble, Bass, Tenor, Alto.
- Bass, Treble, Alto, Tenor.
- Alto, Treble, Bass, Tenor.
- Tenor, Bass, Treble, Alto.
200. In general, subject and answer should enter alternately throughout the exposition; and if the student examines the eight orders of entry just given he will see that in every case one pair of voices will have the subject, and the other the answer. This is by far the most common method, but there are occasional exceptions. In the 41st fugue of the 'Wohltemperirtes Clavier' the order of entry is Alto, Treble, Tenor, Bass, and the alto and tenor have the subject, the treble and bass the answer. Sometimes also another deviation from the regular practice is met with. In the first fugue of the same work, the order of entry is the same as that just noted—Alto, Treble, Tenor, Bass; but here the third voice (the tenor) has the answer, and the fourth (the bass) the subject. In two other fugues of the same work (Nos. 12 and 14) the fourth voice, instead of the answer, has an additional entry of the subject. Here, to avoid two immediate entries of the subject, the third and fourth entries are separated by a rather long codetta. We advise the student in his first attempts to adhere to the usual plan, introducing subject and answer alternately, and adopting one of the four preferable orders of entry given in the last paragraph.
201. In other respects an exposition for four voices resembles one for three, excepting that on the entry of the fourth voice two free parts must be added to the subject and countersubject, instead of only one. The additional entry spoken of above may be used at discretion if an outer part leads.
202. The exposition of a fugue may end in either the tonic or dominant key. If the subject end in the tonic, the answer will end in the dominant; in this case, if the number of voices engaged in the fugue be an even number (two, four, &c), the exposition will end in the dominant; if the number be odd (three or five), the exposition will end in the tonic. If the subject ends in the dominant, the case will be reversed; with an even number of voices the exposition will end in the tonic, and with an odd number in the dominant.
203. Exceptionally, cases are met with in which all the voices of a fugue do not take part in the exposition. The 26th fugue of
